Under an onslaught of regulatory and economic demands, reciprocating internal combustion engines (ICEs) have come very close to peak efficiency and NOX emission reduction. However, such engines, both spark-ignited and compression-ignited, are facing new challenges with respect to mileage and efficiency due to the price of petroleum and petroleum distillates.
Existing spark and compression-ignited ICE utilize a crankshaft with a rod journal that remains at a constant distance to the center of main rotation. This structure, based on the wheel and eccentric pin, has been used essentially unchanged since the 14th century to produce very simple reciprocating mechanical movements, i.e., to break stones, calendar cereals, and for hammering and shaping metals.
The eccentric pin with constant distance to the center of rotation was inherited and implemented in external heat Alfa Sterling steam engines, which were conceived and patented by Jean-Joseph Etienne Lenoir in 1860. A short time later in 1867 Paris, Nicholas August Otto constructed and demonstrated the first internal combustion engine. Continuing this progress, Herbert Stuart invented the first fuel pressure-injected internal combustion engine in 1891, and in 1892 Rudolf Diesel patented essentially the same structure.
For turn of the century industry and society, the eccentric pin with constant distance to the center of rotation in an external engine was a useful concept due to external preparation of the pressure. For example, a steam engine does not benefit from any amount of piston dwell time at TDC (top dead center). Indeed, extended dwell time would cause the steam charge to lose a small amount of heat energy, reducing efficiency.
However, for use in ICEs, the eccentric pin with constant distance to the center of rotation has numerous disadvantages, especially with respect to the piston's movement around top dead center. In the first shorten 90° of moving from BDC (bottom dead center) toward TDC, the piston is moving relatively slowly, meaning that the temperature of the charge is also increasing only slowly. In second 90° of crank rotation from BDC, the piston has a longer more linear response, which means it travels faster and raises the charge temperature faster. This sequence sets very strict parameters on combustion timing which only certain octane-hexogen proportions fuel will successfully and efficiently burn.
Moreover, the existing eccentric pin at constant distance provides only a brief moment near TDC for oxygen electrons to atomize all fuel molecule compounds. Indeed, without allowing for slight looseness in tolerances, there is essentially no constant volume regime anywhere along the piston's travel. Allowing for tolerances, and using a loose definition of “constant,” perhaps one could say that from −4° to+4° ( 1/45 of 360°) the piston doesn't change the volume of the combustion chamber appreciably. At 720 RPM, this period would last 0.0018 sec. Increasing RPM from idle will further shorten the duration of the pseudo-constant volume regime at TDC.
The lack of time at TDC has been generally known, and solutions have been attempted. VCR and variable ignition system as well as increases in charge volume, pressure and charge temperature have been used to support better timing of the spark or peak of compression before ignition. This system had only a small effect on efficiency, but added extra resistance at a critical angle of the peak of the combustion process.
Another technique, forced induction and direct injection, would bypass inadequate sequence of speed in the combustion cycle. However, this system is extremely complex and expensive; the air must first be compressed, then cooled and then compressed again all in one combustion cycle. Even figuring conservatively, operating pressures in direct injection fuel lines, may exceed 8 times higher pressure than that found in camber at that momentum, after the turbocharger shovels in the air. This system achieves a certain level of atomization, but it is still not complete. Although this system has successfully reduced NOx emissions and increased operational energy, it is, again, an extremely complex system mechanically.
Another deficiency of all ICE-s with the conventional piston configuration is the piston's excessively rapid motion after TDC, for the at least first 90° or 120°. System with constant distance of the rod journal to the center of rotation is seen on the FIG. #2. The piston after reaches TDC and is moving back to the center of main rotation now is mechanically ordered to follow reversed order of sequence of speed, what just had in previous motion. That order is inadequate, considering that the charge needs some extra time to fully atomize the fuel molecules and droplets found in combustion room.
That kind of mechanical order of speeds of piston provides very short torque conversion. Namely, the speed of the flame and useful expansion of the gases is what creates the primary force, which lasts a very short angular time due to fast volumetric increase. It shortens the useful or practical power stroke to an average of 60 ° degrees, with conventional piston response. The primary force can stay ahead of secondary force for just 60 ° degrees, and leaves the system with power gaps of roughly of 120°(20° at TDC plus from 80° to 180°).
While the present disclosure is directed to a system that can eliminate certain shortcomings noted in or apparent from this Background section, it should be appreciated that such a benefit is neither a limitation on the scope of the disclosed principles nor of the attached claims, except to the extent expressly noted in the claims. Additionally, the discussion of technology in this Background section is reflective of the inventor's' own observations, considerations, thoughts, and is in no way intended to accurately catalog or comprehensively summarize the art currently in the public domain. As such, the inventors expressly disclaim this section as admitted or assumed prior art. Moreover, the identification herein of a desirable course of action reflects the inventor's' own observations and ideas, and should not be assumed to indicate an art-recognized desirability.